Articles tagged “norwegian air”

This will be a good test. There's no doubt people love low fares, and Norwegian Air will be using a cost-effective aircraft. But is there enough demand from smaller U.S. airports to sustain flights to Europe?

U.S. airlines made executive changes and product upgrades last year to improve performance. But this data will only encourage the Big Three legacy carriers to redouble efforts with the Trump administration to curb foreign airline expansion and reopen Open Skies agreements.

Lufthansa Group has been more insulated from low-cost competition than most of Europe's legacy airlines. That's quickly changing, and the company needs to get its plans in order. It must find a way to turn its Eurowings operation into a more nimble competitor with lower costs.

With so many new aircraft coming onboard, Norwegian was always going to have to cast its eyes further afield for new destinations. Air fares between Europe and South America tend to be on the pricey side, so Argentina is a sensible place to start shaking things up.

International Airlines Group likely has no choice but to try to take on Norwegian in London, Barcelona and elsewhere. The company likely learned its lesson from Ryanair and EasyJet.

It's nice that the DOT finally got around to approving Norwegian's Irish unit to fly to the United States. But this is not as big of a game-changer as some have suggested. Norwegian was going to grow in the United States and offer low fares on transatlantic flights, regardless of whether this happened.

Politics is a funny game. There was little doubt the government would approve Norwegian's application — it had no legitimate basis to deny it — but the DOT still waited years before finally getting around to it. That was probably not fair to Norwegian, but the airline will survive.

Norwegian continues to succeed where other airlines had failed before. It's fuel-efficient fleet and strong cost controls mean that it is making low-cost long-haul flying a reality.

Delta is generally considered the most fiscally sound of the U.S big three, and that likely won't change soon. But Delta, like its competitors, needs to come up with a cohesive strategy on how to challenge the discount airlines beginning to move into the trans-Atlantic market.

Considering how tight the labor supply is, and how much U.S. pilot unions dislike Norwegian Air, it will be interesting to see how many applications the airline receives. Then again, pilots love flying big modern jets, and the Boeing 787 is about as good as it gets.